You Should Be Watching: My Hero Academia

I know, I know bare with me. This is uncharted territory for the site as we have never dipped our toes in Anime but hey, this is my column to tell you what is worth your time to check out and nothing in any media, movie, TV, game or music has hit me harder in the last year than My Hero Academia. It is so good not just for an Anime or for a Shonen series but for a hero tale and story of perseverance and determination. So bare with me, if anime just is not your thing perhaps check out our next article but if you dabble or are a big time anime fan and maybe have not checked out MHA yet take a seat and let me tell you why this show is so astonishingly good.

My Hero Academia focus’s all 3 of its seasons on one central question. What does it mean to be a Hero? The world of MHA is a world where over the last few decades humans have been born at an increasing frequency with special abilities. The show calls them “quirks”, some border on very simple abilities that may help with everyday life, like levitating small objects, some are completely useless, like a horn coming out of your head, and some are world bending abilities that are capable of great destruction. This shift in the world changes everything, how the public is policed, how governments work, even the show pokes fun at how boring sports have become since this change. The show really dives into what life in a superpower filled world would look like. What your day to day would be like with everyone having something extremely unique and sometimes extremely powerful about them. This is where that key question of the show comes into play, “What does it mean to be a hero?” It is one thing to be a god among men, to have so much power that it becomes your duty and (for lack of a better term) responsibility to use it to protect those weaker than you. But what happens when everyone has powers? What makes you a hero in a world when so many have similar capabilities and possibly maybe even more power? That is also where the show shines as we dive into our main characters. This question is what drives all of them. Whether it is striving to be like their childhood idol, follow in the family business, be the coveted #1 hero, or simply to make a lot of money each character has to look at their drive and their goals to keep moving forward. It’s an angle we don’t see many western superhero movies and shows establish. The focus is so much on compelling villains and situations we often never stop to see what makes the hero tick.

One of the main reasons the show gets to focus on this aspect is because the plot focuses around a class of teenagers in the most prestigious hero school in the country. Yes, with the rise of quirks the most gifted kids can attend private schools where they are trained by the very best and brought up to be the next generation of heroes. This is where we meet our main character Izuku Midoriya, he is a bright-eyed kid just finishing middle school looking to get in the most prestigious hero school out there, UA High School. Since a small boy he has idolized the worlds #1 hero who goes by the name All Might. There is only one problem getting in Izuku’s way, he has no quirk. It is extremely rare but Izuku is in fact born without a quirk, doctors informed him and his mother as a child some kids take longer to develop their quirks but by now it is highly unlikely Izuku will ever develop abilities. The scene in which he finds this out is so heart wrenching as his whole world is torn apart. This is especially jarring as his fellow classmate/childhood friend/bully Bakugo is extremely powerful and should have no problem getting into UA. Izuku refuses to give up on his dream and focuses on his mind and intelligence taking constant notes on every hero he can hoping to get into the school. By a chance encounter involving meeting his idol, All Might not only does Izuku receive extrordinary powers but he becomes the successor to All Might’s mantle learning from him at school and in private. The show really dives into the idea of someone whose heart is in the right place but has nothing suddenly receiving everything. It’s kinda like a superhero version of Willy Wonka. It does not come easy, this new power practically rips him apart and he can only use a small fraction of it breaking bones almost every time. The gradual training wheels and learning keeps Izuku grounded in the show and keeps him progressing but also gives him very intense moments where he can show not only his great power but his resolve and heart knowing using his power will result in intense pain.

All of this happens in the first few episodes so the show focuses on the kids learning not only how to be heroes but also what being a hero means to them and what type of heroes they want to be. This gives the show some amazing character moments for sure but also some stellar fight scenes. I can think off the top of my head at least 4 fight scenes over the 3 seasons of the show that are some of my all-time favorites in anime. Characters learning and growing through intense conflict or fights is an anime staple and MHA does it better than anyone right now with the best of the series coming halfway through season 2 when the students are competing in the annual “Sports Festival” which for lack of a better term is a fighting tournament. The son of the #2 hero Todoroki despises his father and with half his power coming from his mother (ice) and half from his father (fire) he refuses to use his fathers half. Throughout the fight, Izuku pleads with him to give it his all and we see flashbacks of Todoroki’s backstory and his relationship with his father. Eventually, his wall breaks down and the arena erupts in fire as he unleashes his other half saying “thank you” before the two unleash all their power in a spectacle that even the Pro heroes in the crowd cannot believe is coming from such young students. It gives me goosebumps even writing about it. The show has so many other moments like this for multiple characters, as the series goes on you will have your favorites and they will all get their time to shine. It is one of the deepest cast of characters in anime probably since the peak of Dragon Ball Z.

I cannot recommend the show enough if you are an anime fan and have seen the show popping up all over as it’s popularity is growing, now is a great time to check it out. If you have never watched anime but the idea is intriguing and you don’t curl at the idea of watching animation this is a great show to get you into the giant world of anime. If nothing else do yourself a favor and check our some of the best fights on YouTube especially “Izuku vs. Todoroki”. While you’re at it queue up the theme song from the series “You Say Run” I promise it will have you amped up. I always love when a show pops up out of nowhere and just takes over my mindset and this show has done that. A year ago I had no idea what MHA was and now I’m humming the tune all day and have All Might as the background on my phone. I know it may be outside your comfort zone but if you’re looking for intense action, an interesting world and a great cast of characters look no further than My Hero Academia. Plus Ultra!